Villa’s backline knew they were in for a busy afternoon from the off as the Gunners burst out of the blocks straight away and took the lead on six minutes.

With Matt Lowton pushing forward and Vlaar slipping, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain burst down Villa’s right and the speedy England wideman raced to the byline.

His neat cross with the outside of his right boot found Giroud who swept in a first time finish from close range beyond Guzan at the near post.

To add injury to insult, Villa lost Baker just before the half hour mark when he failed to recover from a foot problem sustained in a tangle with Theo Walcott.

Ciaran Clark came on in place of his fellow academy graduate instead of Jores Okore with the Danish international still lacking match fitness after a pre-season hamstring problem.

With the Emirates crowd buzzing, Villa’s gameplan of trying to frustrate the Arsenal faithful finally paid off midway through the first half.

Out of nothing, Gabby Agbonlahor tore through the centre of the hosts’ defence and rounded goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny who contrived to bring down the Brummie striker.

After a moment’s hesitation, referee Anthony Taylor pointed to the spot and Benteke stepped up intent on scoring his first goal against his boyhood club.

The Belgian battering ram’s poor penalty was saved by Szczesny, but as the ball sat up, Benteke reacted quickly to nod in the rebound and make it 1-1.

In a frantic first half, Vlaar and Jack Wilshere were both booked when the Arsenal midfielder reacted angrily after being chopped down by the Villa skipper.

Villa lived dangerously when a mix up between Luna and Brad Guzan allowed Walcott to steal the ball, but his cut back for Giroud was scrambled away by Clark.

Next it was Arsenal’s turn to breathe a sigh of relief after Szczesny over-dramatically saved Westwood’s ambitious shot after the keeper’s poor clearance got the Gunners into trouble.

Luna was harshly booked just before the break after a clash with Oxlade-Chamberlain where both players were equally culpable, but the Gunners man was injured and was replaced by Santi Cazorla at half-time.

In a lively start to the second half, Tomas Rosicky should have restored Arsenal’s lead when he was played in by Giroud, only to blaze his effort over from just inside the box.

Villa came even closer moments later when Delph’s cracking low drive rattled the right-hand post and rolled across the goalmouth before spinning past the opposite upright.

But the claret and blues did take the lead just after the half hour mark – in controversial fashion.

Agbonlahor intercepted a lax pass to Cazorla on the half-way line and accelerated into the penalty box and away from Laurent Koscielny, whose afternoon was about to go from bad to worse.

Koscielny appeared to get his foot to the ball as he slid in on Agbonlahor, but the officials saw it differently, awarding another penalty and booking the Arsenal defender.

This time Benteke kept his composure and tucked the ball expertly into the bottom left corner, much to the delight of the claret and blue army behind the goal.

With Wenger still fuming on the technical area at that decision, the Gunners manager’s mood darkened moments later when his team were reduced to 10 men.

His fellow Frenchman Koscielny got his marching orders on 67 minutes, picking up a second booking in six minutes after fouling Andi Weimann near the touchline.

Wenger and the Emirates crowd were furious again when Vlaar, already on a booking, committed a foul on the edge of his box but avoided a red card.

Rosicky did his best to conjure up a leveller with a winding run through the heart of the Villa defence, but Guzan was out quickly to deny the Czech playmaker.

Guzan made an even better save to somehow push Cazorla’s effort onto the crossbar from close range to annoy the majority of the 60,003 crowd packed into the Emirates, while Benteke slided an angled hat-trick chance past the post.

But Luna frustrated the Gunners even more on 86 minutes when he found the energy to burst forward from the back, latch onto Weimann’s precise pass and steer in a calm finish.

It was quite fitting that the man nicknamed Tony Moon should add the finishing touches, because Lambert, his players and the fans were absolutely over the moon.